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2020-12-31-accounts

ST JAMES (HOPE) CHURCH, PENDLETON, SALFORD

ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2020

PRESENTED AT THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING 18th April 2021

Agenda for the Annual Parish Meeting – 2021

ANNUAL VESTRY MEETING TO ELECT CHURCHWARDENS

ANNUAL PARISH MEETING

Minutes of the Annual Parish Council Meeting of St James (Hope) Church 4th October 2020

The annual Report for 2019 was circulated at the meeting.

1. The business of the day started at 11:00 with the Vestry Meeting.

Lynn Frier agreed to continue as Vestry Clerk. Trevor Palmer was re-elected as Church Warden proposed by Sheila Hughes and seconded by Sheila Jones. Fred Lloyd is stepping down as Church Warden and Robert Hedley has now agreed to take over as the Second Warden this was proposed by Mrs C E Walker and seconded by Mr F C Lloyd. Sheila Hughes confirmed that she was willing to again serve as assistant warden for another year. Tony Wood has agreed to take on the role of Treasurer and Sheila Jones has agreed to carry on as PCC Secretary. Together with the above named there were 19 attendees at the APCM in total.

Minutes of the Parish Meeting on the 25th April 2019

The minutes were read and approved as a true reflection of the meeting. Proposed by Margaret Adshead and seconded by Sylvia McGeal APCM approved unanimously.

2. Matters arising from the minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting of 25th April 2019

There were no matters arising.

3. Electoral Roll Report and Appointment of Electoral Roll Officer.

The electoral Roll stood at 47 made up of 34 Parish residents and 13 from outside the Parish, the numbers reduced by three from the previous count. Margaret Adshead confirmed that she was happy to continue as Electoral Roll officer for another year. APCM approved unanimously.

4. Election of Representatives to the Parochial Church Council.

The following six nominations were been proposed and seconded and were all duly elected as PCC members for the coming year:-

Sylvia McGreal, Margaret Adshead, Sheila Hughes, Susan Fortune, Fred Lloyd, Betty Walker and APCM agreed with these choices unanimously. In addition Trevor Palmer, Robert Hedley, Sheila Jones, Tony Wood and Ann Sinclair are PCC members in an ex-officio capacity as a result of their roles within Church.

5. Election of Sides-Persons.

The following eight nominations were proposed and were all duly elected as sidespersons for the coming year:

Sylvia McGreal, Margaret Adshead, Ivy Wood, Sheila Jones, Sheila Hughes, Doreen Palmer, Thelma Sproston and Sheila Booth. The APCM approved unanimously.

6. Election of Deanery Synod Representatives.

Gareth Hughes has agreed to continue acting as our representative for the coming year together with Robert Hedley APCM approved unanimously.

7. Appointment of Parish Examiner/Auditor.

Beryl Ainsworth has once again offered to fulfil this role and was re-elected unanimously. The APM were all in agreement that Beryl's generously offering to take on this work for us undoubtedly saves us a lot of money each year for which we are very grateful. She accepts no cash payment and actually donates money to us instead. This is much appreciated.

8. Annual Report on the financial affairs of the Parish.

Fred Lloyd gave a full and thorough account of the financial affairs of the Church

9. PCC Secretary’s Report on the year’s proceedings of council.

Sheila Jones gave an account of the PCC meetings, and social and fundraising events which have taken place during the year.

10. Fabric Report: Structure, goods and ornaments of the Church and Parish Hall.

Trevor Palmer gave an account of the remedial works carried out both to the church building and also the parish hall including repairs to the roof, gutters and central heating system. The Fabric report was accepted by APCM.

11. Deanery Synod Report.

no meetings were held by the Deanery in 2020.

12. Child Protection Report.

Sylvia McGreal gave a full and thorough report on each of the following subjects:

Child Protection, Little Gems, Rainbows and Brownies also safeguarding policies for vulnerable adults.

13. Vicar’s Report.

Gareth Thomas, our new vicar, gave his report which was warmly received by the APCM

14. Any other business.

Retirement of Fred Lloyd as Church Warden

On behalf of the Congregation Trevor Palmer thanked Fred for his long service to the Church totalling in excess of 38 years. Apart from his duties as Church Warden

which started in 1977 and continued to 2009 he then again becoming Church Warden again in 2014 until 2020. Fred spent many hours researching the history of the Church and he has collated his information into a book which ensures that the history of St James (Hope) Parish Church will never be lost. Fred has devoted many hours to the maintenance of the gardens and the buildings and has involved himself in may church functions.

Retirement of Constance Elizabeth Walker (known as Betty)

Trevor thanked Betty for her long service as Treasurer which duties she carried out with tenacity and diligence keeping the finances of the church in pristine order.

Betty has been involved with Hope Church since an early age being Rose Queen in 1952. She involved herself with Sunday School trips, badminton club, Scottish Dancing and any other church hall events.

The Church Congregation thanked Fred and Betty for their hard work

The meeting finished at 12.20.

PARISH PERSONNEL FOR THE YEAR 2020 – 2021

Team Rector: Gareth Thomas Churchwardens: Mr. Trevor Palmer Robert Hedley PCC Secretary: Ms Sheila Jones* PCC Treasurers: Tony Wood * Other PCC Members: Mesdames Margaret Adshead, Sheila Booth, Sheila Hughes, Sylvia McGreal, Ann Sinclair, Ivy Woods Sidespersons: Mesdames Margaret Adshead, Sheila Booth, Sheila Hughes, Sheila Jones, Sylvia McGreal, Doreen Palmer,Thelma Sproston, Ivy Wood.

Parish Child Protection Officer: Mrs Sylvia McGreal.

Electoral Roll Officer: Mrs Margaret Adshead.

Deanery Synod Representative: Gareth Hughes and Robert Hedley *

Parish Examiner/Auditor: Beryl Ainsworth of Ainsworth, Hargreaves & Co

Persons marked * are ex-officio members of the PCC

COMMUNITY HALL

Committee : Wardens, Treasurer, Sheila Hughes, Bob Goodall.

Bookings: Sheila Jones

REPORTS

Electoral Roll Report 2021

At 1st April 2020 the electoral roll stood at 47 in total.

As at 1st April 2021 the electoral roll stands at a total of 48 persons made up as follows:-

Parish Residents 34 and 14 non-residents.

Treasurer’s Report

As a newly appointed Treasurer, it has been my privilege to prepare the Financial Accounts for 2020 in accordance with the system established by my predecessors, Betty Walker and Fred Lloyd.. I am grateful to them for all the assistance that they continue to give me in operating in this new role.

It is pleasing to be able to report to everyone connected with St James' Hope that, despite the disruption to worship caused by the pandemic in 2020, our income for the year exceeded our expenditure by just over £1,300.

This was a reduction on the position in 2019, when income exceeded expenditure by £4,400 but the changes in circumstances could not have been foreseen.

The church would have made a loss during the year if it were not for the income received from hiring out the car part to the NHS. This is at a fixed rate of £1,000 per month billed quarterly. During 2019 only three quarterly payments were actually received into the bank. This was made up for in 2020 when the equivalent of five quarterly payments were received into the bank when we needed them most.

We are indebted to those faithful members of the congregation who continued to honour their giving either through monthly standing orders or by putting money in the weekly envelopes even when the church was closed for public worship. Understandably, income was much reduced from collections "on the plate" taken during services and due to restrictions on our usual fund raising activities .

Income from the hire of the Parish Hall to external organisation was also badly affected by the pandemic lockdowns with income during 2020 being almost £5,000 less than in 2019.

The Church, church grounds and hall maintenance costs, on the other hand, were over £3,000 higher in 2020 compared with 2019 as the buildings still require to be maintained even when closed. These costs were partly offset by a refund on the electricity bills charged to the hall which had previously been overcharged due to using estimated meter readings.

Overall, it is pleasing to report that, having met all our commitments including paying the Parish Share in full, the church's total assets as at 31st December 2020 stand at £25,632. compared to total assets of £23,870 at 31st December 2019.

Appreciation must be recorded for the tireless work of the Church wardens without whose diligent attention to church matters and "hands on" approach our costs of operating would be greatly increased.

Tony Wood - March 2021

PCC Secretary's report

Unfortunately there is very little to report for 2020 due to the Pandemic lockdown. During January and February we had the usual regular activities going on in the hall then in March we were forced to stop all activities.

However in spite of this we have managed to hold six PCC meetings and two Extraordinary meetings via the Zoom platform and the church business has been able to carry on.

Fabric report for Annual Parish Meeting

Fabric report for Annual Parish Meeting. Date 18 04 2021. During the year 2020, the church building has been maintained to the usual high standard, with a number of repairs and improvements taking place. The West end of the nave still contains a large amount of water within the wall.

Early in March 2020, yet another stolen car hurtled down Lancaster road and failed to stop at the traffic lights. This time it took to the air and

landed on top of our perimeter wall damaging a large coping stone. No other damage was done to the wall.

The car did though pick up a traffic cone on the way and catapulted it right through the centre of one of our stained glass windows. Due to covid 19, it took until the end of May to get an estimate for the repair (£3400). The repair to the window was eventually completed and it was installed on October 18[th] 2020.

In May, we had an issue with one of our neighbours in Vicarage Close, using church grounds as his own personal refuge tip and throwing “stuff” over our wall. We compiled a letter to him pointing out this inconsiderate behaviour was unacceptable and if it continued, we would have to inform other agencies. We have had no further issues.

In August a new altar frontal for the Lady Chapel was fashioned and embroidered by Sonja Hedley. The project was made possible by a donation of £100 from Jackie Brendreth (ex Priest of our benefice) For the future both the lower and upper vestries remain unfinished with regard to the plastering of walls and ceilings, and painting of same. We are also looking to upgrade the old sink area in the lower vestry. We are also looking to install a toilet inside church, estimates to be sought as soon as possible.

Community Hall. The hall is in good order externally, with the damaged panels’ referred to at the last APCM being replaced, along with a number of downspouts.

In January, the PCC decided to apply for a grant from Virador Waste to upgrade the toilets in the hall, replace the ceiling and lighting and install an accessible toilets. Sadly, before the project was underway, covid 19 hit us, which put the whole process on hold for the time being. There has been some Japanese Knotweed breaking through the Tarmac at the back of the hall. The gardener has dealt with it using specially licensed chemicals.

End of Fabric report for 2020

Deanery Synod report 2021

Deanery synod has not met as frequently as it usually would and the meetings we have had have been via Zoom, however the restructuring of the Deaneries from 20 deaneries to 7 is continuing as planned, and the new Area Deans have now been appointed. The hope is that this will free up the Area dean to do a better job of mentoring newer clergy and supporting parishes that are in interregnum. Most of our meetings have been taken up with this restructuring, hopefully in the coming year the

new deanery will be able to meet in person and start a new way of working together in the future as part of mission partnerships.

Child Protection Report

The following statement was agreed by the PCC at its meeting on July 20[th] 2020.

The statement was considered by the PCC and the following noted:

.

  1. The PCPO has checked that the children’s organisations which are not Church groups continue to have satisfactory Child Protection policies and DBS clearance.

  2. The Guides and Brownies work under their Association’s policy and any Dancing School will have its own policy. These are both in accord with the Church’s policy.

  3. Diocesan recommendations regarding child protection have been installed.

Sylvia McGreal

Vicars Report for St James

It has been a very tough year for everyone and a strange one for us as a church, it has in many ways felt like we have been in limbo for almost the whole year waiting for various lockdown rules to end. It has also been a painful year losing some of our friends and family at church and outside it. While much of Church life has been put on hold such as our family services and our social activities, there has been some progress in other areas. There is now an online service for those who cannot or do not wish to attend Church at this time and these seem to have been well received. We have been approached by the Elim church about us sharing St James’ as a place of worship in the future, and the potential for this to become a partnership that greatly benefits both worshipping communities is great.

We continue to be in a reasonably good state financially, with the hospital continuing to rent the car park and providing a very useful income through the lockdown. We have also now got the services of a new treasurer in Tony Wood, after Betty and Fred stepped down having given many years of dedicated service to the church and certainly earned a rest.

The coming year will no doubt present new challenges for us, but I believe that we will continue to rise to meet them as we seek to serve God and be a light in our community here in Hope, and I look forward to the time soon when we can start again with our family services and Little Gems work, and we can look forward to growing in numbers and in faith together.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to the clergy, the church wardens, the sides people, our PCC members, our organist Ken and all those who have worked so hard through this time to support the churches work and care for one another and those around us. You continue to make me very proud to worship and work alongside you in this place, in service to God and our community.

God bless

Gareth

ONLINE MISSION

New Facebook Page

At the end of March we started a joint Facebook page to cover both churches. It is called

St James, Hope and St Johns, Pendlebury

It currently has 133 “followers”.

Sunday worship is offered by all the clergy. It takes the form of the Morning Prayer service, with readings and a sermon for the day from the Eucharistic service. It has regular viewers from 30 – 65. Feedback has been positive and it offers an opportunity to worship “together” for those unable to attend a service in either church (when open), and when the churches have been closed.

Other posts are put on several times a week on a variety of issues – prayer, photos, thoughts, other services or sermons e.g. from our Bishops. On special days Revd Gareth and his wife Revd Grace have offered a recorded service of Holy Communion e.g. at Easter and Christmas. Revd Pamela and Revd Gareth also recorded content for Good Friday as we were unable to hold our usual service in church.We have also set up a Group page which members have to join (the general Facebook Page is open to the world) and on which we held two Messy Church events. Other resources for families are also posted there.

When life returns to normal we will continue this Facebook page as it is another excellent mission opportunity which enables us to engage with new people.

Virtual Meetings

As we have been unable to meet in person most of the year, it has been an excellent alternative to do this online using Zoom. Our PCC meetings and Bible Study Explore sessions have met in this way.